Speaking Truth to Power

The demand for a better power control and accountability in the Indian Christian Churches underlines the issue of transforming traditional leadership models. The Church of South India (CSI) is a unique church since it is the pioneer of a united and uniting church since 1947, uniting the Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregationalist denominations of the missionary churches. With over 4 million members, it is a powerful church even though Christians in India represent a small minority. The process of a constitutional reform is currently debated to change the character of this church from a united to an episcopal church with an accumulation of power in the role of the moderator. The controversy about this reform is linked to ongoing criticisms about corruption in many of the CSI-related institutions. On this background, church governance becomes a hot issue of power control and accountability, and above all, of the faithfulness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the credibility of the community of believers

Speaking Truth to Power and Power Speaking Truth: Accurate and Reliable Information in a Pandemic

In this Article, I offer some preliminary ideas for how we might engage in a collective project to enable our government to improve its capacity to help us understand and respond to a future existential health threat. I first deconstruct the government informing process to analyze the points of information contestation based upon the realities we are experiencing. I then outline a project to create a space in which respected experts mediate knowledge claims and moderate contested opinions regarding the human risk of, and government response to, a public health threat. This idea embraces the ambitious goal of educating and engaging citizens as active consumers of probably correct information. Our challenge is to design a government-sponsored space that is also maximally insulated from political influence. Through this project, the government can secure, share, and exchange accurate information to earn the public’s trust. For their part, citizens can engage as active participants in a dynamic information exchange process. This “communicative action” should promote informed decision-making that prioritizes protection of the public’s health. At the outset, I concede that a public information space open to all voices, which is mediated and moderated by experts, is predicated upon the assumption that a sufficient proportion of Americans are willing to talk to each other without regard to their differences, be they race, age, gender, occupation, education, or income. Admittedly, given our current politics and social media environment, informed conversations may prove elusive. Nevertheless, I believe we can build public trust in a shared knowledge base that will improve the government’s capability to respond effectively when there is a serious threat to the public’s health. Citizens who learn to navigate the information space can make better decisions for their own health and that of our democracy. If the ambitious goal proves unattainable, we can settle for identifying the untruths and undermining their salience

Speaking Truth to Power to Power in Fundraising: A Toolkit

Speaking Truth to Power in Fundraising: A Toolkit is simultaneously a report of findings from a mixed-methods study of the fundraising workplace, a call to action in addressing sexual harassment in the profession, and a set of resources for taking action. As has been found elsewhere, the report points out consequential disparities in the experience of fundraisers across social identity groups – race, gender, and sexuality. There are mixed feelings about the success of fundraisers' workplaces in achieving diversity and equality. Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) fundraisers are more likely to perceive barriers to promotion for minorities, and Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual (LGB) fundraisers are more likely to perceive inequality and a lack of diversity. The report speaks to the ability of fundraising employers to make members of different social identities feel safe. Results show that most fundraisers have confidence that their employer would address a complaint of discrimination or harassment, though there is room for improvement. Fundraisers may be less certain in the case that the harasser was an external stakeholder. And, while 80% or more of fundraisers' workplaces have policies prohibiting harassment based on race, sexual harassment, and workplace violence, fewer have policies prohibiting bullying. Exclusionary and harmful behaviors like these are due to a misuse of (financial, supervisory, and/or social) power

Speaking Truth to Power: The Legacies of Rachel Carson

Speaking Truth to Power seeks to explore the experiences and possibilities that arise when educators speak Truth to power